Lifestyle

This week’s must-read books

Tigerman
By Nick Harkaway
Knopf

An archipelago destroyed by toxic waste sets the scene for a new novel from Harkaway (“Angelmaker”). The pollution is so bad on the fictional island of Mancreu that the UN plans to evacuate the “Arab and African and Asian” atoll and destroy it. Clearly, malodorous Mancreu needs a hero. Hapless ex-solder Lester Ferris heeds the call, realizing he must turn into a man of action to save the island’s people. What kind of hero? A superhero of course: Enter, Tigerman.

A Spy Among Friends: Kim Philby and the Great Betrayal
By Ben Macintyre
Crown

British historian Macintyre, known for his biographies of wartime spies (“Agent Zigzag,” “Operation Mincemeat”), gives us the goods on yet another MI6 marvel: Kim Philby. This double agent rose to head Britain’s counterintelligence against the Soviet Union during the Cold War — while he was secretly working for the USSR. Philby has long been thought to have escaped to Moscow, but Macintyre argues that he was allowed to flee in order to avoid a trial that would have embarrassed the British. Ironically, Stalin worried Philby was really working for the Brits and didn’t trust him.

Panic in a Suitcase
By Yelena Akhtiorskaya
Riverhead Books

From the Ukraine, something humorous for a change. In Odessa-born Akhtiorskaya’s debut novel, the Nasmertov family immigrates from the author’s native city to Brighton Beach. They think they’ve made a huge sacrifice and left everything behind, but when the USSR dissolves, the stakes in their being in the US are no longer so high. After all, they can now simply fly home to visit whenever they want. Much of the story centers on Pasha, the great poet of the family who stayed behind (his visit to Brooklyn where he loses him swimsuit at the beach is quite funny).

The Bone Seeker
By M.J. McGrath
Viking

Is summer getting too hot to handle? An arctic tale from North America may offer some respite. In McGrath’s third book about Edie Kiglatuk, our fearless heroine is teaching summer school in Canada’s far north, when one of her Inuit students is found dead in a nearby lake. Edie enlists the help of a local detective, and the plot thickens when high levels of toxic waste are found in the precarious pool. Can anyone shed some light on this mystery? Fortunately, the sun is out 24 hours a day in the arctic summer.

Here Comes the Night: The Dark Soul of Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm & Blues
By Joel Selvin
Counterpoint

The songs of Berns are well known. He is not. A peer of Leiber and Stoller, King and Goffin, Bacharach, Spector, the hits from a brief seven years before his death in 1967 at 38 include “Twist and Shout,” “Hang on Sloopy,” and “Piece of My Heart” (also the title of a new off-Broadway show on Berns). A brilliant pop-songwriter, he was also tangled up with the mob. A fascinating look at a character and a time from the San Francisco Chronicle’s longtime music writer.